TABLETOP GAMING - "Making a MAMMOTH CAVE" Pt.2

"Enter The Caverns, If Ye Dare!"

I finished painting the MAMMOTH CAVE ENTRANCE tonight, and decided to stay up past my bedtime to post it. So "phase one" is now complete.

Last time, I had left you with the main structure covered in spackling paste. I won't show you the next two steps: I covered everything with a coating of wood glue, then painted the cave parts with a gray acrylic/gesso mixture. But I'll walk you through the finishing touches. I wanted to add a few more details, so I made a "bag 0' boulders" to have on hand. I also needed some smaller "rocks", so I put some chunks of the pink insulation foam into a blender, and "Viola!"

After strategically gluing the bigger boulders throughout the cave, I then mixed some sand into the wood glue. I painted that in random places where rocks had "fallen" here and there on the cave floor.

Here's the transition from "no rocks" to "rocks" to "rocks painted gray".

And here's the whole scene with the final paint scheme! I wanted the water to be a bit foreboding...it's not the pristine clear lake that some caves offer. This one goes really deep...with potential "scary thingies" livin' in there!!
One thing I did to differentiate the "outside" of the mountain from the inside of the cave, was to paint things a bit "cooler" in tones. The stone is more slate gray, with glazes of brown.

Finally, here are the three separate terrain pieces that can be configured together or apart, depending on the needs of the game.
More to come...got some Stalactites and Stalagmites to make!

TABLETOP GAMING - "Making a MAMMOTH CAVE" Pt.1

Here we go, fellow Spelunkers! Time for a "Mammoth Cave" adventure!

I've been busy this week on phase one of a multi-part scenario for my friend, Jaye. I got inspired to tackle this project after seeing an incredible series of photographs from National Geographic of a newly discovered gigantic cave in Vietnam. It's now considered to be the largest in the world! (Check out the images HERE!)

My imagination took off, and I began to sketch up some various components that I plan to make over the course of the next few weeks.

Below are some other images I gathered off the web for inspiration and details. I also bought a cool book at a half-priced store featuring the "Great Caves" of the world.

The first component I wanted to make was the cave entrance and a cavern lake. The lake can be removed and placed on a different part of the gaming table. I began with a rough sketch on board, then cut out both pieces with a jigsaw.

Jaye let me borrow his hot wire foam cutting tools, and I began to cut out the various shapes. I then glued them together with "SUPER 77" spray to form the basic configuration.

Next, I continued to carve the "mountain" with the hot wire tool, to shape more convincing rock contours, and to help hide the seams of where the foam was stacked.

There were some obvious gaps in the construction, so I filled cracks with a hot glue gun. Then I began to cover the whole sculpture with spackling paste. I used a putty knife, like spreading icing, then went back over the surface with a cheap rough-bristle brush. This broke up the surface into more irregular textures. I will sand off the little "nuggets" when it dries...but not too much. I don't want to lose the rock-like textures. Because of the size of this cave terrain piece, it took me two nights work to cover it all with the spackle.

Here's where I left it tonight...drying. I also made a little "boulder island" that can be placed on the lake, or used as a prop on the cave floor. I'll continue working on it over the long weekend (Martin Luther King Holiday on Monday). To give it a bit more interest, I'll add some rock "debris", where various sized boulders have fallen here and there. Stay tuned!

TABLETOP GAMING - "Making a MAMMOTH CAVE" Pt.6

The modular CAVERN TUNNELS are complete...the MAMMOTH CAVE PROJECT is DONE!!

I wasn't sure I was ever going to finish this thing. But in spite of feeling under the weather this evening, I wanted to post, so I could get you all updated with the last of this series. It was a bit more involved than I expected...a solid 2 months to finish everything. It was a bit too much fun, so I'm gonna "retire" from making terrain for a season, and catch my breath.

This set of tunnels was intended to be "modular" so that it could be arranged in whatever configuration was desired. There are enough bits to make a couple of separate passageways. I started with two markers taped about "2 characters" apart. I then drew all over a piece of masonite board...making it up as I went along without a sketch.

Then, as with all the other pieces in this series, I cut out pink foam with my band saw to match the shapes I had cut from the board. (The saw cuts the foam like butter!) I then started shaving off edges with a hot-wire sculpting tool. (Thanks for the loan of that, Jaye...couldn't have done this without it.)

Once all the segments were finished, I painted on a layer of wood glue mixed with sand, to give the floor of the tunnels some texture. After that came a coat of glue mixed with brown acrylic. I then went through the crazy assembly line process of glazing and dry brushing everything to match the other pieces in the Cave Series.

When I was all done, I decided that I needed a couple of "proper" entrances to the tunnels...so I quickly made two. I kept the backside relatively flat to line up against the other segments. Below are the finished pieces, with a few close up shots for detail. The BLACK areas are meant to represent deep, deep shafts that drop into nothingness below.

And here's the whole shebang on the floor of my studio...and then piled up on the card table.
Now I've got to figure out how to box it up for traveling...sigh. Thought I was done. Hope you all got some new ideas from following this tutorial. Jaye...have FUN with this stuff!!!

TABLETOP GAMING - "Making a MAMMOTH CAVE" Pt.4

Got a new piece ready for the Mammoth Cave theme...a ROCK WATERFALL!

The runoff stream disappears under some boulders into a vertical shaft of darkness. Any brave explorers willing to repel down and see what's there?

I made this set in two sections, to make it easier to store them. They could be used separately as well.

Since I have already shown the basic building process in earlier posts, I won't take too much time explaining things. However, this is a good example of what you can do with leftover chunks of pink foam. I glued together several random pieces, and just started carving away with the hot wire tool. It makes it challenging, but also gives it more interest than with a large flat slab of foam.

I decided to raise the water level of the falls a little higher than the lower section of the stream. So I just carved out a groove into the big rocks...added some little pieces of foam to a board, then hot-glued them into place.

Here is the set with all the carving done.

I did the usual process of covering everything with spackling paste, for added rock texture...when dry, I sanded off the sharp edges. Then I made a mix of wood glue and dark brown acrylic paint, and gave a base coat to the whole thing. When dry...I painted all the rocks and water areas to match with the other sets in this series.

Okay...here's how I made the waterfall. I got a large sandwich bag...cut a strip about two inches wide from the edge of the bag...then spray-glued the inside of the bag together, so it would be a sturdier and thicker piece of plastic.

Next, I taped the plastic to a board...then I used a hot glue gun to make strips all up and down the plastic. I left a gap in the middle, to add interest. When the glue had cooled down, I cut off the excess baggy, and trimmed the ends of the glue near the tape.

Once I had hot-glued the falls into place, I used the hot-glue gun to add splashes to the water, and spillway. I gave the water a bit of aqua-blue glazing with very thin acrylic...then added a bit of white paint to the splashes and ripples.

Here are all the set pieces so far! Actually, I'm getting close to being done with this whole project. Even though I have ideas for making lots more sets, I've been making terrain every week since mid-December...I think I'm ready for a break. But I'll hang in there a little longer...I've got some stalagmites to make!